I stood by the pond looking, no frogs, no salamanders, no fish. No herons either, I’ve only seen a few of them all summer.
But there are loads of insects everywhere.
Braeden didn’t come to the farm today, so after brushing Fanny and Lulu I went to the back pasture for a visit.
A row of orange umbrella mushrooms were popping up beside the footpath I walked on. The path the animals have made over the years.
There were still apples on the trees in the back pasture. And a few pears high in the pear tree. I can only imagine all the animals who come to feast on them.
The pasture is alive with insects.
They hop and fly
bouncing the flowers
as they leave and
land on them.
Grasshoppers parted the way as I walked and little yellow butterflies danced around each other above it all.
Only two of the ten white pines that I planted a few years ago survived. And one just barely. The chicken wire I had around it got knocked over and the needles were eaten down to the ground.
But it came back this summer and is thriving.
Most of the thistle has gone to seed, so silky, soft and delicate, the opposite of the sticky plant itself. It’s well protected except from the donkeys who love to munch on them, and the goldfinches who eat the seeds and so help to spend them.
